ANALYSIS OF CASUALTY & FATALITY FIGURES

The purpose of this page is to reconcile the various previously-published
figures for casualties and fatalities associated with the London Underground
network during WW2, with the records of Civilian War Dead maintained by the
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC), and where possible to identify
by name those killed. I am indebted to the assistance given by the staff
of the Commission in this task, and wish to state that any transcription
errors or omissions are the sole responsibility of the author.

BALHAM 14/10/40

The number of fatalities for this incident vary between 64 (as quoted on
the memorial plaque in the station itself) and 68, but the CWGC now records
66*:

It is notable that all the above are stated as having died at the station,
with no injured subsequently dying elsewhere.

*For many years this total stood at 65, until Gladys Benbrook was added to
the CWGC Register of Civilian War Dead in May 2010, having previously been
unrecorded. My thanks to Howard Benbrook for drawing my attention to this
omission, and to Terry Denham for raising the case for inclusion with the
Commission.

BANK 11/01/41

In the immediate aftermath of this incident, the number of casualties was
reported as:

Dead - 25 bodies recovered
10 more believed still to be under debrisTaken to hospital - 40Slightly injured - 60

Most accounts now state 56 killed and 69 wounded, giving a total of 125,
rather than the 135 estimated above. The CWGC records 56 civilian fatalities
which contain reference to "Bank tube station." Of these, 46 were deaths
in situ, while nine died either the same night or in the next two days.

11/01/41 - "Injured at Bank Station; died same day at London Hospital"
(Metropolitan Borough of Stepney):

BOCHNER, MAX (Age 49) [Polish Citizen]

11/01/41 - "Injured at Bank Tube Station; died same day at London Hospital"
(Metropolitan Borough of Stepney):

PRUIJM, DAVID (Age 60) [Netherlands Subject]

12/01/41 - "Injured 11 January 1941, at Bank Tube Station; died at St.
Bartholomew's Hospital" (City of London):

HEMMING, WINIFRED LILIAN (Age 24)
SMITH, ALICE AUGUSTA (Age 68)

12/01/41 - "Injured 11 January 1941, at Bank Tube Station; died at London
Hospital" (Metropolitan Borough of Stepney):

PAYNE, ELLEN (Age 35)

13/01/41 - "Injured 11 January 1941, at Bank Tube Station; died at London
Hospital" (Metropolitan Borough of Stepney):

GATES, ALBERT WILLIAM (Age 28)

Of the above, one was a Women's Voluntary Service (WVS) worker, one a member
of the Home Guard, and two police constables. References to the number of
fatalities being, "53 shelterers," may be attributed to three of these four
being "on duty" at the time.

The CWGC records numerous other casualties as a result of the same general
raid, with other locations hit including Liverpool Street Station (mainline),
Bishopsgate, Bishopgate Street and New Street. Two fatalities are recorded
at the Mansion House, adjacent to Bank Station. All bar one of those who
subsequently died in hospital have the location where they were injured noted.
The single exception, however, shares a surname and a Bethnal Green home
address with a known Bank fatality, and so is almost certainly a
previously-missing "missing" 57th victim:

19/01/41 - "died at St. Bartholomew's Hospital" (City of London):

LEYSERMAN, MARTHA (Age 29)

BOUNDS GREEN 13/10/40

The total usually applied to this incident is 19, but the particular
circumstances mean that it is often described in prosaic - almost romanticised
- terms. Carpenter (1992), for example, states:

"Nineteen people were killed and twenty seriously injured. It was particularly
poignant that the strict allocation system had been instrumental in selecting
the victims. Sixteen of the fatalities were Belgian refugees who were permanently
allotted to the east end of the platform. The remaining three were British
newcomers to the shelter who had been temporarily placed in the Belgian area
by the station foreman."

Halliday (2001) offers a similar:

"The nature of the casualties [at Bounds Green] made this a particularly
tragic episode. Sixteen of the dead were Belgian refugees who had fled their
country at the time of the Dunkirk invasion and had created a Belgian enclave
at one end of the platform. On this particular night they had welcomed three
English people who had been bombed out of two homes. All nineteen were killed."

Such accounts seem to have their origin in Graves (1947):

"In fact, nineteen people were killed, all except three of whom were Belgians.
A local colony of refugees from Belgium had ensconced themselves at the far
end of the west platform on the first night of the blitz. They kept themselves
to themselves, and it was only because they had been blitzed out of two homes
in forty-eight hours that the foreman ticket-collector had permitted three
British subjects to shelter in the Belgians' section of the platform.

"The ticket-collector had just made this arrangement when he decided to ascend
to ground level and make a personal reconnaissance of the blitz overhead.
A solitary German aircraft had been flying round for nearly half an hour,
evidently in search of a particular target. As the ticket-collector stared
upwards he heard the whizz of a bomb, followed by a crash of glass. The bomb
had fallen on top of four 3-storeyed house to the right of the station. The
ground did not vibrate unduly and he presumed that no particular damage had
been done.

"However, as he walked down to platform level he heard screaming. Half the
platform was in darkness. At the far end he could see that the tunnel had
caved in. Having allocated the sleeping accommodation only a few minutes
previously, he knew that at least sixty people were involved. Crowds were
milling around the safe section of the platform. He promptly sent a porter
to the local A.R.P. headquarters and, himself, hurried to a nearby hospital
which provided two doctors and six nurses.

"With these reinforcements he returned to the scene and made his way behind
the debris where he found fifteen or twenty injured Belgians. These were
removed to hospital.... By 3.0 a.m. all the injured people had been taken
away, but nearly a week elapsed before all the corpses had been removed."

The records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission for the civilian casualties
in the Municipal Borough of Wood Green, however, cast doubt on certain aspects
of the "usual story":

The CWGC records numerous other casualties as a result of the same general
raid, with only three of the above being specifically-stated as being Belgian,
but of the remaining 13 recorded as having died at the station, nine do not
have names that would suggest them being anything other than British. This
leaves the four members of the Necchi family, but the surname is Italian,
while the forenames of the two adults suggest that they were not recent
immigrants to the UK.

The Borough details in CWGC records are those of the district in which a
death occurred, so either there were another 13 injured Belgians who died
and were buried in another location, and that ten of the thirteen Britons
were somehow overlooked in the immediate aftermath; or simply that the numbers
were mistakenly switched at some point, and it was in fact thirteen British
citizens and three Belgians were killed on the night itself, "16 plus 3..."
being mistaken for "16, of whom 3..."

As to the story about the "English family" recently arrive in the area, the
following are the home addresses for the victims, together with their approximate
distances from the station:

Since Winifred Mears was in attendance as a W.V.S. (Women's Voluntary Service)
worker, she is an exception, but it would seem that the Necchi family were
those often stated as recently-arrived in the area, having been bombed out
of their previous home. References to the family only being three in number
are probably a reconciliation with the erroneous belief that only three of
the fatalities were British.

CAMDEN TOWN 14/10/40

Most sources state a single fatalities in this bombing, but the CWGC records
five:

14/10/40 - "Died at Camden Town Tube Station" (Metropolitan Borough of
St. Pancras):

During this morning incident, a number of High Explosive bombs hit Charing
Cross mainline station, with passing through the roof of the adjacent Underground
station of the same name (the current Embankment). Contemporary documentation
notes that one person was killed, and indeed the CWGC records the following:

Many published sources refer to the station being damaged twice in September
1940 - with one incident incurring casualties - but no specific dates.
Declassified official records show that the station was hit by a high explosive
bomb at 20:45 on 25 September 1940, and then by second at 22:45 the same
night, killing or injuring staff and passengers. The CWGC records eight
fatalities at the scene:

12/01/41 - "Injured at Green Park Tube Station; died same day at West
Middlesex County Hospital, Isleworth" (Municipal Borough of Heston and
Isleworth):

LEVINE, MORRIS (Age 57)

It should be noted that the date discrepancy in the case of Levine may be
the result of confusion in a night raid, while the lack of occupation details
means it is not possible to confirm at present that this as an LT employee.

With thanks to Alex Scott for assitance in expanding details of this
incident.

Casualties for this bombing are usually stated as 20 injured, while the CWGC
records that one of them subsequently died:

31/01/41 - "Injured 15 January 1941, at Lambeth North Tube Station; died
at St. Thomas's Hospital" (Metropolitan Borough of Lambeth):

GARLAND, ROBERT ISAAC (Age 68)

PADDINGTON (PRAED STREET) 13/10/40

This bombing resulted in significant loss of life, but was not recorded in
previous accounts of high fatality incidents (Graves, etc.). Initial CWGC
analysis of Paddington Borough civilian dead shows five killed of died in
situ, and three more succumbing to their injuries in the following days,
although the total may be higher if injured died in hospitals in other Boroughs,
as yet unidentified:

13/10/40 - "Injured at Praed Street Station; died same day at St. Mary's
Hospital" (Metropolitan Borough of Paddington):

GRUBB, EMILY MATILDA (Age 33)

14/10/40 - "Injured 13 October 1940, at Praed Street Station; died at
St. Mary's Hospital" (Metropolitan Borough of Paddington):

COLES, CLAUDE (Age 30)
SMITH, JOHN WILLIAM (Age 29)

In addition to the above eight fatalities, there is a ninth who may have
either been injured on the thoroughfare itself, or the "station" detail was
omited in error, although it is more likely to be the former:

17/10/40 - "Injured 13 October 1940, at Praed Street; died at St. Mary's
Hospital" (Metropolitan Borough of Paddington):

BROWN, LEONARD CHARLES STEWART (Age 31)

SLOANE SQUARE 12/11/40

A figure of 79 casualties is often applied to this incident, but while some
sources give it as the number of injured, with others others it is fatalities.
The CWGC, however, records 35 immediate deaths, and two from injuries
subsequently: